I walked away from a corporate job a few months back. I was wise enough to build up quite a large nest egg before I quit, and now I'm slowly building up a salary based on a variety of jobs doing what I WANT to do! Follow me on my journey.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Stuff=slavery

So often I hear people talking about how much they hate their job situations, but how much the "can't" do anything about it, "because of the money." Aren't you tired of worrying about the money? Aren't you sick of being a slave to low pay, long hours, poor treatment, and this idea that some asshole came up with about what you are supposed to be doing with your life? Then, stop.

You CAN stop. You can do whatever it is you want to do with your life. You just have to figure out how to change your life to suit what you really want. It probably will not be easy, but is working at a job that constantly makes you envision setting the building on fire so you can be free from cruel and unusual cubicles?

You don't like being a lawyer anymore? Quit. Sell or rent your house, move to a cheap apartment, get rid of all your junk, find a different job. Oh, but I don't want to do that, my house that's chock full of all my stuff is important to me! George Carlin has best explained the human pathological problem with stuff, but in short, your house is nothing but a big pile of shit with a cover on it.

Do me a favor. Right now, look around your room. Look at everything you have in your room. Look at all the stupid shit you've got. Think of how much you spent on everything you can see. Do you need that shit? Can you even find 20 things within your area of vision that you actually need?

I bet you've got plenty of pretty little decorative candles that cost $10 each, that you'd never dream of lighting because they're just so pretty. I bet you've got clothes you haven't worn in at least a year. I bet you've got all kinds of dumb little nicknacks that don't serve a purpose. I bet, if you're a lady, you have fifty different purses, three of which you actually use. I bet you have thousands of free pens, hundreds of which have no ink, but as soon as you pick one up, try to write with it, and discover it has no ink, you stick it right back in the cup you grabbed it from because you can't waste a free pen!

Just stop! Stuff is slavery. You know why you can't leave that job that you hate, that's raising your blood pressure, that's aggravating your ulcer, that's giving you headaches, that keeps you up at night, that's making you wish every second for the sweet release of death so that you wouldn't have to do that god awful job you hate for one single second longer? You can't part with your stuff.

Sure, claim all you want about paying bills and keeping food in your belly, but let's be honest here. Have you never been late on money you knew you owed but didn't pay because you spent that money on some piece of material crap you just had to have when you saw but then you didn't even like it when you got it home anyway? Also, with 70% of Americans being obese, I'd say a few hungry nights might help us all out a bit. Yet, every last one of us has a big pile of shit with a cover on it that we call a home and a horrible job we can't stand to support it.

What a waste of life....

When you're dead, do you think it will really matter how much crap you acquired over your lifetime? Do you think your loved ones are really going to be proud of you for that? If anything, they're going to be pissed at you because as soon as you die, they're going to have to take time off of their meaningless, crappy jobs they hate so they can sort through and take care of all your stuff!

Or worse, do you want your loved ones to remember you as someone who worked so hard that you were never around to give them the love, affection, and attention they desperately needed? All so you could kill yourself in order to provide them this huge pile of shit with a cover on it that they have to sift through after you croak?

When you're lying on your deathbed, looking back at your life, is your bank account and all the stuff you bought with it really going to be on your mind? No. The only thing that will be on your mind is regret for how you wasted the perfectly beautiful privilege of life on stuff, the pursuit of which killed you.

Get rid of what you don't need, acquire only what you do need. Reward yourself only now and then with useless crap. It's fun, but don't let it take over your life.